US-based virtual reality (VR) technology producer USens raised $20m yesterday in a series A round led by Kinzon Capital, the venture capital fund backed by conglomerate Fosun.
The round also featured ARM Innovation Ecosystem Accelerator, an initiative by chip maker ARM and smart devices platform Thundersoft, as well as Maison Capital, Great Capital, Fortune Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, iResearch Capital and Chord Capital.
The round was first reported in March 2016, however at the time the size of the investment was undisclosed and details about backers were incomplete.
Hassan Parsa, vice-president of corporate development at ARM, said: “ARM has set up Accelerators in China (Beijing and Shanghai) and plans to add two more (Chongqing and Shenzhen) by the end of the year. The purpose of the accelerators are to support innovation in the ARM ecosystem in China. The ARM Innovation Ecosystem Accelerators will provide various services and enable strategic benefits to startups and take minority positions in select number of companies such as uSens.”
Established in 2013, USens has built a headset named Impression Pi for third-party VR mobile apps. The device incorporates 3D gesture, position and head tracking technology and is also compatible with augmented reality (AR) applications.
The series A round will enable USens to launch two new tools, 26DOF and 6DOF, which enable hand tracking and head tracking, respectively.
USens previously obtained $5.5m in a September 2015 pre-series A round co-led by IDG Ventures, a VC affiliate of publisher International Data Group, Lebox Capital and Maison Capital, with participation from Stone Capital, Fulcrum Capital, ChuanCheng Fund and Chalor Capital.
Donghui Pan, chairman and president of Kinzon Capital, said: “For ARVR to achieve its potential, natural head and hand tracking is required. It is clear that ARVR is an explosive market.
“Already consumers want a more immersive experience, and hand controllers simply are not the solution. We have chosen to invest in USens, because we are confident the company has the deepest expertise and vision to provide this key that will help unlock mass-market ARVR adoption.”